Warhol was ambitious from the very start and, on completion of his
studies in Pittsburgh, New York beckoned. In 1949 he set off to make a
name for himself in New York, working as an illustrator of magazines and
books, a window dresser and a designer of advertisements. Warhol developed
a characteristic understated, quirky hand-drawn style, using a blotted-line
technique. Most successful were Warhol’s shoe advertisements for
the company I. Miller and Sons.

Despite his commercial background, Warhol was keen to be considered as
a serious artist. He had two exhibitions of his drawings at the Bodley
Gallery in New York in the mid 1950s. The first was of erotic male nudes,
the next of golden slippers, richly ornate and embossed. One such drawing
made at this time was Boot, now at the National Gallery of Australia.

Warhol’s openness about his work and success as a commercial artist,
was however later to haunt him. The artist found that many undervalued
his attempts to become an artist in his own right. The stigma of being
a commercial artist worked against him.